Methionine is utilized in a variety of fields, from pharmaceuticals to health and fitness products to feed supplements. Methionine is produced industrially in large amounts; it is currently produced by a completely synthetic pathway that utilizes petroleum-based chemicals and hazardous chemicals. Because of price increases in petroleum, the high costs associated with hazardous waste management, as well as for safety and environmental reasons, there is a need for alternate methionine synthesis pathways. An attractive starting material is homoserine, which can be converted to methionine via an N-acetylhomoserine lactone intermediate. Current methods for preparing N-acetylhomoserine lactone require the use of reactive acylating agents and catalysts. Because of the cost of these reagents, however, there is a need for cost economical and atom economical processes for the synthesis N-acetylhomoserine lactone from homoserine.